2 Year Old Scared of Characters

[MadMadamMim1]

My 2 1/2 year old is generally happy and bubbly and friendly. We were a bit surprised when she screamed bloody murder at Santa Claus last month. We had tried to prepare her with the cartoons with Santa and she was even exclaiming “Santa Claus!” when she’d see one out and about. But face to face, nope, not having it.

Makes me a bit worried show she’ll react to characters on our trip next month. It’s her first trip to WDW. She loves Pooh so first day I have Crystal Palace booked for lunch. Maybe that will help ease her in, since she’ll be eating at a table with us. Rapunzel is her favorite princess and I have a FP to meet her in the afternoon. I hope she doesn’t scream. Anyone’s toddler overcome this at the parks?

 

[CastAStone]

My kids (22 months and 3 at the time of our last trip) also were scared of Santa, which freaked us out prior to our visit for the same reason. We started with a character dinner too though, and it was good. They're good at reaching to the kids faces and adjusting accordingly.

From there on everything went smoothly UNTIL we met Ariel. OH. MY. GOSH. Terror on my 1YOs face, which set off my 3YO, and we were out in a jif. This repeated any time we met a "face" character. So we stopped meeting face characters. Santa, I realized in retrospect, is also a face character. I hope you have better luck with Rapunzel.

The mascot style characters went well though.

 

[ZZBane]

My 2 1/2 year old doesn’t do Santa either. I’ve tried every Christmas since he was born (3 so far) and it’s a big no go. However, every other character has been fine. Idk. Kids are weird and they do weird things He may love something one day and then the next it’s the devil

 

[SandyinMonterey]

My daughter never really cared for the characters at Disney. With her first trip when she was almost 3 at WDW, we did Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, Mickey's Backyard BBQ. It was fine if Mickey or Donald came up to say hi but not real close, had to be some distance between them. When she was about 6 or 7 we went to a character meal at Disneyland. All the princess there. She had her Snow White costume on and everything. We walked in and she hated it. Spent most of the time in the bathroom or under the table. My husband and I vowed right then and there, no more character meals. She's 14 now and enjoys seeing the characters but at a distance. No meet and greets, no photos, no character meals. (P.S. Did not have any problems with Santa while growing up...just Disney...bummer!)

 

[Koogs]

My oldest who was 5 and 6 at the last 2 visits was very adamant that he wouldn't go up to most characters and was in tears at times when we tried to get him to go. We did get him OK at a few in AK. He's always hated characters at birthday parties too. We'll see how he is at 8 this time and my 3 year old too.

We are doing 1 character meal at Tusker House , but otherwise i'm happy to avoid them.

I jsut know I'm in trouble when my 9 month old gets old enough for Princesses.

 

[StarSeven7]

My daughter didn't love the characters at that age either. She would maybe meet 1 and then be done. She was okay from a distance though.

 

[xipotec]

My DD lost her mind seeing any masked character.
But then of course asked to see them.
We opted to give her the best of both worlds.

We did character M&G and just held her on the opposite side of the room. We let her decide if she wanted to get closer with or without us.
The following year, walking in at rope drop, Snow White was walking out of the backstage just as we walked in.....my DD saw her, SW waved to her and my DD ran into her arms and would not let her go....

They will do what they will when they will. Let them guide you as to when they are ready.

Much bettter than a terrified kids

 

[KayaWildfire]

We had a screamer when it came to furry type characters, good to go from a distance, up close was a no go at about 1. Was over it by the next trip at 2 thank goodness. The characters do a good job reading the situation and won't push past a kid's limits. They usually get down on the ground, reach out for a high five, that sort of stuff. They don't race in for a hug unless invited. Our youngest is still afraid of chewbacca at 9, she had to be taken out of the meet and greet by her older sister last month on our trip. I felt bad for chewie, he really tried. Just wasn't happening.

 

[DisLiss]

I like the lunch idea. That way if she seems afraid of the characters in the room, you can just wave them off with a shake of your hand & head to keep them from actually coming near your table.

You can always change your FP to something else if things don't go well at lunch, or like was mentioned above--just let her wave to Rapunzel from your spot at the head of the line once it's your turn.

Ultimately, the trip will be fun for her even if she doesn't want a darn thing to do with the characters right now. And some years down the line, if you opt to go back, she might love them then. My nine year old is more excited about the characters this year than I have ever seen him. He's ready to wait in every line possible to collect his autographs. You just never know when your kid is suddenly going to really get into something sometimes.

I hope you all have a great trip!

 

[North of Mouse]

My 2 1/2 year old is generally happy and bubbly and friendly. We were a bit surprised when she screamed bloody murder at Santa Claus last month. We had tried to prepare her with the cartoons with Santa and she was even exclaiming “Santa Claus!” when she’d see one out and about. But face to face, nope, not having it.

Makes me a bit worried show she’ll react to characters on our trip next month. It’s her first trip to WDW. She loves Pooh so first day I have Crystal Palace booked for lunch. Maybe that will help ease her in, since she’ll be eating at a table with us. Rapunzel is her favorite princess and I have a FP to meet her in the afternoon. I hope she doesn’t scream. Anyone’s toddler overcome this at the parks?

Whatever you do don't push her! It would only make it worse. My 3 1/2 year old was scared also and only overcame her fear as her little brother helped her - he wasn't afraid of anything - lol - she couldn't let him 'best' her!!

 

[MelissaBee]

When DD was a tot she was terrified of all characters—Santa, Snoopy at our local park, baseball mascots, etc. Our first trip to WDW, we tried the character meal at Cape May. She dove so hard sideways trying to get out of her high chair to escape Minnie that we nearly had a disaster! The rest of the characters stayed a bit further away. Then there was a shift change, and the new Minnie snuck up behind her and put her hands around in front of her face. The screaming reverberated throughout the restaurant. Minnie felt terrible and quickly moved along. Luckily she wasn’t scarred for life, lol.
By age 3 1/2, she was a character fanatic. The change happened all of a sudden, one day she was terrified and the next she was hugging any character she could find. We spent that entire trip meeting every character available. Seriously. So. Many. Meet. And. Greets. Sooooo many!
Good luck!!

She made up with Minnie, lol!

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

We took DS a few days before he turned 2 and were expecting him to be frightened of the characters. He didn't like Santa or the Easter Bunny, had a lot of anxiety around strangers, and really wasn't that familiar with (in some cases had no prior knowledge of) who the characters were.

Our first character experience was at CRT and he pulled away from and ignored the princesses. They picked up on his cues and left him alone. 2 days later at Garden Grill though, he jumped out of the booth to meet Pluto, ran into his arms and wouldn't let him go. Pluto spent at least 10 mins on the floor hugging him and having a conversation with him through gestures (Pluto) and babbling (DS). After that, he ran to meet every fur character and while he didn't hug any face character, he didn't mind being near them. Also, he started talking after meeting Pluto. Up until that trip, he had said a total of 4, maybe 5 different words in his life. As we were leaving Garden Grill, he said, "I like Puto and Gickey," doubling his vocabulary in a single sentence. He said dozens of new words that trip.

 

[MadMadamMim1]

I’m hopeful hearing some of these stories! We’ll see how CP goes and if she freaks out I won’t push it. She may be ok with characters but not face....I can try with Rapunzel after lunch and if that’s a no go we’ll just forget characters the whole trip! Wave at them at the parade and let that be it!

She has a 9 year old sister, maybe if she sees she’s ok with the characters she’ll follow suit. Older daughter was never afraid of characters, but her first trip she was 4.

 

[lostprincess_danie]

My 2-year old is also TERRIFIED of Santa Claus. But she did great on our Disney trip meeting both the face and masked characters that she KNEW. The key for us was to only meet characters she was familiar with (Mickey and friends, Pooh and friends, Tinkerbell). I took her with me to meet Ana and Elsa because I wanted to see them and she did okay but was clearly uncomfortable. Didn't force her into anything, she just kind of stood there, but she is not as familiar with Frozen as she is with the other characters she sees in her books and on TV.
Sounds like you got a good plan, OP! Not forcing anything is the way to go. Be prepared to give a wave and walk on through if your little girl starts to get upset.

 

[LSUmiss]

My DS (20 mos) loves Santa & characters from a distance. He’ll even high five & hug them if I’m holding him. But he would not stand with the characters himself now or sit in Santa’s lap. He did when he was younger like 15 mos.

 

[Boopuff]

Love reading this: my DD was 3 on her first trip (now this was eons ago) the movie Pocahontas had just come out and both my daughters loved it. My clever mom had snagged Cinderella Castle breakfast reservations. And low-and-behold Pocahontas was there with Meeko! Meeko approached the table first, and my DD tried to hide under the table! But Pocahontas came up and told him to behave, he backed away, Pocahontas took DD's hand and she hugged Pocahontas and finally Meeko. After that all characters were hands on! (man I don't want to type Pocahontas any more!!)

 

[Itsnotmykitchen]

I know tons of kids that were/are terrified of Santa but have no problem with characters, mascots etc. I think with Santa it’s partially the expectation that you have to get near to him. The characters at the meals are usually pretty good at reading kids and knowing when to keep some distance.

 

[Orionreplay]

My daughter had zero issues with characters or Santa, and before the days of Photo Pass as we know it today, we bought an 8x10 WDW photograph of her clinging tightly to Tigger. She was just a month shy of her 2nd birthday. Today at almost 13, characters are still "cool" and she gives big smiles.

My son... 100% horrified of any and all characters, to include Santa. Even today at 9 years old in November at WDW, you can see in his face, "I'm doing this for you". We reached a point with him at ages 2-6 or so, we'd ask and if he said "no" then that's where it ended. He eventually broke free of his fears, but not totally.

So when you look through our previous Photo Pass photos, you'd think we had one child. Ultimately he would appear being held by mama. It will pass, but not as quickly as you wish it would.

 

[paisleys]

Mine were always afraid of the characters. We became grateful--no standing in line to meet them or enduring character meals!

 

[sponica]

My then 20 month old did better with fur characters than face characters...actually she does better with the easter bunny than Santa, so maybe she's consistent like that.

The only face characters she tolerated were Anna and Elsa, even then she was uninterested.